Monday, November 29, 2010

Well another week has flown by...just where does all this time goes that flies through the air. I had a blast reading all the comments during the Mistletoe Make and Bake blog hop, thank you so much if you left one. Normally I try and answer all comments personally but y'all overwhelmed me, thank you for the kind words....and btw I am not responsible for any weight gained during the making and baking of the hop...just sayin'....

WOW....another Thank You to everyone that brought in panties for our Pantie Raid, when I left on Saturday we had 62 packages and I'm not sure if we got any on Monday...if we did I'll update the total over on my Facebook page, what's that??? you don't follow me on Facebook...well get on it...we have loads of fun over there and you don't want to miss out.

We are a day away from December and I still haven't started my Christmas gifts but that's no big surprise to those that know me but this year I need to get my fanny in gear. We'll be taking a few days off and driving to North Carolina to spend a few days with Andrew's side of the family so where normally I can be sewing on Christmas Eve...well unless they let me set up on the dining room table I'll need to be done before we go. Have you started your Christmas sewing? Finished? or are you just gonna hit your local shops and buy your Christmas this year?

Until next time...
Keep Sewing...
and let the countdown begin....
26 days and counting...
Kelly Ann

Friday, November 26, 2010

if you've not dropped off panties for the Pantie Raid there's still time....Kelly Ann's Quilting will be open Saturday 9am to 3pm...we still have plenty of fat quarters to give away. Lets show the quilters from the other shops...

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Monday, November 22, 2010

Kelly Ann's Quilting will be having our first annual after Thanksgiving Pantie Raid to collect new women's and children's panties and socks. We'll be donating all that we collect to the local shelter that services abused women and their children.

We'll be accepting donations Friday November 26th and Saturday November 27th, and if you're traveling don't worry, we'll take those panties on Wednesday the 25th. For each package of new undies you donate, we'll give you a free fat quarter from a selected group. We have enough cut and rolled for 350 donations and it would make me jump for joy if we had to cut more.

We are not alone in the Pantie Raid...take a look at some of my peeps that will also be collecting panties in their area...

To add a little more fun to we've sort of been egging each other on....naturally I said that my customers would donate more panties...so lets rock and roll and show those shops how we do it at Kelly Ann's Quilting.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

With the temperature dropping at night the trees have decided to drop their leaves but not all at one time, little by little, week by week...The first weekend Andrew went out to start up the blower he couldn't get it started so a quick run around the yard with the mower and most of the leaves got chopped up. Weeks later still unable to get the blower started we determined that it was just best to get a new blower and put this one out of our misery. But, before I'd let him use the new blower I thought I share a few pictures of what our fall yard looks like...

For several years I've made platter after of platter of cookies and sent them off to work with Andrew. The years I've not been able to make a boatload of cookies leaves me feeling like something is missing from Christmas. Standing at the kitchen counter with all my ingredients laid out in front of me, mix a batch and into the fridge to chill, mix the next batch and into the fridge they go...and it goes on like this until I have several batches ready to hit the oven. I think it's so cool to come home and throw a batch into the oven...yummo!

I've never done a cookie swap, but I would guess it's like a wine tasting except everyone goes home with a plate of cookies, and instead of a wine head you have a sugar rush head. My last cookie for the hop is one of my favorites, it's not too sweet and in my opinion only gets better the longer it stays around, but I don't normally get to try out that theory cause I love, love, love these babies...so without further delay I present to you...

Preheat oven to 400.Cream butter, sugar and vanilla extract on high speed until fluffy.Add flour, salt and nuts, mix until combined.Roll the dough into small, 1 inch balls, if dough is too sticky to handle place refrigerate for 30 minutes. Place on an un-greased cookie sheet or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper;bake for 10 to 13 minutes.Remove the cookies from the pan and roll in powdered sugar while still very warm. If the sugar starts to melt, just re-roll.

**as usual just click on the name to download a pdf file**

I want to thank each and everyone of you that has followed along on this blog hop, what a fun time it has been reading all of your comments. If you've enjoyed yourself you can keep following me here and also over on Facebook...

Is there one tradition that you have to do during the holiday season, something you can't live without? Mine is eggnog...

yummy, creamy, rich eggnog...and do you know what goes great with eggnog?? COOKIES!!!

This recipe came from my Mother-in-law and while I do an okay job with them, and they taste pretty much the same for some reason her's are better...and these Linzer Tarts go great with eggnog, so grab a mug and get to baking...almost a match made in heaven.

Cream butter and sugar; blend in eggs, extract, flour, baking powder. Mix well, chill batter for 1 hour or more. Roll out quarter of mixture at a time; cut with round cookie cutter (scalloped edges are pretty); take half of circles and cut smaller holes in middle; bake 350 for 8 to 10 minutes; do not overbake you’ll want a soft cookie and they should look white, no browning. Cool cookies completely on rack; put preserves on solid side of cookie, top with cookie with hole in the middle; sift powdered sugar on top.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Kelly Ann - thanks for the "interesting" recipe - can't wait to share some Reindoor Poo with friends and family! I love to applique wool/felt, so I'll create that version for sure. I have never used Aurifil, so I'd better be checking that out as well. Thanks for sharing the recipe, pattern and hand motioning photos!
Kathy B...send me your mailing address and your package of 12wt Aurifil thread will so be on your doorstep...
Thank you to everyone for leaving a comment...I had a blast reading them all...

Have y'all noticed a theme in our post? Each day we have a different subject to chat about, today we're suppose to talk about a "go to" book, it could be cooking, crafting, or just general reading. I can honestly say I don't have a "go to" book, all of my recipes are either in my little pattern box or I make things up as I go along.

When I was growing up my mother had a cookbook and all I can remember is it had Charleston in it's name. I've always played in the kitchen and nothing is better then making a cake or cookies from scratch, I can still remember pulling this book out of it's safe keeping drawer and going through it to make something special for my parents, well, more like my Dad, Mom doesn't really care for sweets, but this little girl knew back then that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. So, it had to be between 1972 & 1974 that I started my adventure into baking from scratch, if I followed the recipe to a "T" the cookies would come out perfect but adding or deleting something...well...not so good...my father loves to tell the story about some cookies that the dog wouldn't even eat, I find that hard to believe but he swears it's true to this day.

I will promise you something...this recipe will not be refused by the dog, husband, kids...you mark by word this will make you the most popular chef on the block...

Lookie who the third person on the list is...yep it's me....how exciting is this...and now it's my turn to share with you another goodie and my fun Christmas project.

So by now y'all know that I grew up in a military family, when my father retired we settled in a small town in North Carolina. The neighborhood my parents still live in was a great place to grow up, every year there would be a big Christmas party and you learned early on how to get a conversation going in a room full of strangers. The family that hosted this party would invite people from all over, people with no family in the area, people from their work, just people in general. I've never had any issues starting a conversation, and to some of you that's not a surprise, but keeping one going with strangers can be difficult so I've always resorted to humor. Humor plays a big part in my life, and with that comes the animated hands...here's proof from the early 80's...

and here's one of the 70's....

the pose is always the same...so if you ever find yourself at a party and needing to start up a conversation, just use humor and hands..they work well together.

Here's my project and my goodies...all in one picture...first lets start with the project...I started off with a simple drawing of holly leaves and berries, just click on the link to download a pdf of the drawing, you can enlarge it or make it smaller to suit your needs. I made two projects to help spark your creativity on using this simple pattern.

First up is my wool pillow and I absolutely feel in love with wool while working on this project...

I used 100% wool that had been felted and hand dyed...again, total love. The leaves were outlined using 12wt Aurifil thread and the best part was I used it in my sewing machine and it sewed like a dream.

Wanting to play with my pattern alittle more I decided to try my hand at some cute redwork...

I love redwork and this quick pattern, from tracing to finish stitching took less then 2 hours. I used Kona Snow for the top, 12wt Aurifil thread #2560 and some fun plaid fabric I had in my stash, kind of cute don't ya think.

Now for the goodies...this is an easy one....these little morsels go by a variety of names, Reindeer droppings, Reindeer Poo...but we just call them yummo..and stinkin' easy.

We love these when I use dark chocolate but with all the different flavors of kisses and M&M's out there the combination's are unlimited.

I'm doing a small give-a-way...leave me a comment and you'll be entered to win a selection of 12wt Aurifil thread.

Don't forget to stop by all the bloggers and leave a daily message to enter to win a grand prize, check out this posting for all the names...

How many out there like to go Christmas shopping? Is your shopping experience like this?

Is your shopping experience like this?

or this?

I'm more the second shopper...every January I say to myself..I'm gonna make all my gifts this year and every December I'm running around like a mad-woman shopping till I'm dropping. To de-stress I take one Sunday before Christmas and bake, yes bake...all day long, there is nothing more relaxing then being in the kitchen, Christmas Music on and mixing all those fun cookie recipes together...which leads us into my next recipe...

Bring butter to room tempature; place graham crackers in food processor, if you don’t have a food processor you’ll need to crush the crackers into small pieces. Pulse the crackers until crumbs but not too fine; add in order for best results, butter, peanut butter, vanilla, sugar, pecans & coconut. The last two ingredients can be mixed in by hand, roll mixture into balls. The balls can be frozen up to a month, thaw and either served with extra powered sugar or dipped into your favorite melting chocolate, or served plain with vanilla ice cream.

*Click on the recipe name to download a PDF file.

Thanks for stopping by...make sure you leave a comment on each blog each day to qualify for our big drawing...lots of goodies involved.

Let me take you back to Christmas 1966, my father was in the United States Marine Corps and we were stationed at Camp Lejeune NC, all was right with the world. I have two older brothers, at the time Jimmy was 12, Karl was 11 and I was 6, we lived in a mobile home that had no storage, at the time a mobile home made sense to those families in the military, get orders to a new duty station and just pick up your home and move.

That Christmas morning we woke up to our biggest load from Santa ever, there was a guitar, drum, bugle, keyboard (I'm pretty sure my parents thought we'd be the next Beetles), and I'm pretty sure there was more stuff but what sticks out in my mind is how in the world did Santa make it in, we didn't even have a fireplace. If you've ever lived in the south you would know that the weather on Christmas day could be freezing or so warm that all those new sweaters you got for presents would need to wait till January, well this Christmas was one of those very warm days...so once the presents were opened and had ample time to be played with outside we went and what do we discover when we walk out the door...boxes, yes boxes that "Santa" brought our toys in. Now, and this is were the story has changed over the years, I remember the boxes having Sears & Roebuck printed all over them, my brother and mother both say, no they were just plain boxes but I'm stickin' to my story. It was then and there that Santa was revealed, but so as not to make anyone mad I kept that to myself, who was I to tempt fate, in case there was a real Santa I didn't want to make him made. So to this day I still "believe" in Santa..and if Santa wants to leave his boxes outside to be recycled I'd be happy to help him out.

Now...your reward for reading my Santa story I have a yummo recipe for you to try...

Tip: You can change out the almond extract for orange and use dark chocolate kisses’ for a nice rich flavor. Use mint extract and juice with a mint kiss, with the variety of flavors Hershey’s has for kisses the possibility for fun flavors are almost limitless.

*To make it easy for you to save my recipes click on the name of the cookie and download the pdf file.

Don't forget to keep stopping by, we'll have lots of links and lots of goodies for you to try...

Thursday, November 4, 2010

It's really hard to believe that it was a week ago that I was flying out to Houston...we really packed alot into those five days.

Thursday as we were checking into our hotel, I hear this voice behind me...Kelly Ann..and who do I see...my friend Sharon...

Sharon has an online store... Daisy Cottage Quilting ... she was gonna be hanging at the hotel waiting for her/our friend NancyNoBlogs to show up... and they were gonna pack all of market into two days...silly girls...bet they stay longer next time...cause if the do then they'll be more meet ups...

Friday was a complete blur, we did our usual, racing from classroom to classroom, learning about some of the new goodies being introduced at this years Market. This is where the celebrity sightings start, and a celebrity packed market it was. Year after I year I give y'all a run down on who we saw and how very exciting it is to see the designers in our industry, well this year I'm standing in a doorway and this women walks up and wants to know who packed the room, so as I'm explaining to her that it was Keizer & Bender and Rich is up there standing on a chair getting everyone to yell "YES" (told you we had fun), it was then that I realized that I was chatting with Alex Anderson. But the biggest celebrity of the weekend wasn't spotted till Saturday...

Saturday started like any normal quilt market Saturday...we walked the several blocks to the convention center, started in the middle of the isle and worked our way towards the outside, chatted with old and new friends, saw some stuff, had lunch...then it happened...commotion started to arise from the next row over...so I took a peak and look who I saw...

Yes that is Ty Pennington...THE Ty Pennington...in case you were wondering, he is as handsome in person as he is on TV and is very friendly, chatting and accommodating. So I'm standing around stalking watching Ty when look who shows up...

Jon Hamm from Mad Men...WHAT..you're telling me that's not Jon Hamm, that this is Jon Hamm..

well looks like Jon Hamm to me...and they even convinced Ty they were from Mad Men...

what a great sport he was...actually the two impostors were from Michael Miller Fabrics, who just happened to be around the corner...and who else was around the corner you ask....

The Swirly Girls...

Susan and Christine were introducing their new "The Clubhouse" with Michael Miller Fabrics...and I'm so excited to say that we'll be having fun with The Clubhouse at KAQ.

When you signed up for The Clubhouse at Market and ordered your fabric you got to go into the Money Chamber...and go in people did...

if you'll take a close look you'll see someone from Kelly Ann's Quilting coming out with a ton of Swirly Cash in her hand...make sure you stop in the store and tell you saw her on the blog.

Okay...that wraps up this re-cap...I'll leave you to enjoy this post before I continue forward...but make sure you check back cause there's more excitement to share....
so until then...
stay dry, stay warm and
have a Groovy Day...
Kelly Ann